If we were going to approve of a remake of Dennis Kelly’s excellent and sadly cancelled Channel 4 drama Utopia, we were going to approve of one made by David Fincher and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn for HBO.
Now, it looks like the American take on Utopia is in trouble.
THR reports that Utopia is “way over budget,” while Deadline reports that the cast, which includes Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara, have been released from their contracts.
The site also reports that Fincher wanted a budget of $100 million, while HBO would only stretch to $95 million. HBO currently have two Fincher projects in development, the other being 80s music video comedy Video Synchronicity, but that is also floundering. However, with episodes already filmed, that one looks more likely to be rescued.
HBO head of programming Michael Lombardo says that they are “struggling right now trying to figure that out. We’re at that moment, trying to figure out if there is a path forward or not for Utopia.”
While we were very interested to see what talents as impressive as Fincher and Flynn could do with Utopia, we’re not going to be heartbroken if it does fall apart. After, all, there’s two really, really good series of it already…
“The Utopia Experiments is a legendary graphic novel shrouded in mystery. But when a small group of previously unconnected people find themselves in possession of an original manuscript, their lives suddenly and brutally implode.
Targeted swiftly and relentlessly by a murderous organisation known as The Network, the terrified gang are left with only one option if they want to survive: they have to run. But just as they think their ordeal is over, their fragile normality comes crashing down once again.
The Network, far from being finished, are setting their destructive plans into motion. The gang now face a race against time, to prevent global annihilation.”
You can buy Utopia Series 1-2 on DVD for £7.10 at Amazon.co.uk. Keep up with the latest genre news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
